'Routes in Arabia' [‎480] (513/852)

480
Eoute No. 128 {h)—contd.
and good from springs in the vicinity. Supplies consist
of barley, bearded wheat, and durrah, fresh vegetables grown
locally, and fruit from Sana'a. Grain chaff and durrah stalks
are used as fodder. An important market is held on Sundays.
The Hulcumah is also headquarters for a company of Arab
Gendarmerie.
4 SUQ-AL-KHAMIS 30 m. East of Manakhah
~ ridge the ground falls
} 18m - away rapidly into a sea
of kopjes and foothills beyond which rises the wall-like scarp
of the main range ; over this passes the road to Sana'a.
On the higher slope of this range, within sight of Manakhah
on a clear day, stands Suq-al-Khamls.
From Manakhah ridge the road, after circling round the town
in a horse-shoe curve, winds down the east face of a spur of Shib-
am which runs down from the main heights in a south-east
direction. On the right are the well-nigh precipitous slopes of
the spur and on the left an almost sheer descent to the ravine
of Hegr into which the road descends 3,000 feet below Manakhah.
The difficulty of this descent is much enhanced by the rough
surface of the road, well traced, bridged and buttressed, but
so neglected that torrents and wash-outs have rendered it
dangerous to negotiate without dismounting. The descent
takes 2 hours and the ascent 3 to 3|.
.. r mi | e 4 i3 the steep zigzag down the face of Dhira salient
Dluit of the above mentioned spur.
• w 11 , ni l e 5 ' a s P rm g g ood water emerges from the rock to the
right of the road, at mile 7 is a small coffee house, also to the
right, and at mile 8 the road descends into the valley of Hegr.
io track quarters the shingly bed of that wddi, which swings off
s larply northwards and, still maintaining an easterly direction,
crosses a tentacle of the main spur down into another widi.
Ira versing this amid arable land the route crosses another low
spur and down a long stony descent amid timber and good graz
ing into a third wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. at mile 10. At this point, 800 yards off the
road to the right is the Ottoman post of Bait-al-Mahdi on a
small eminence, and just before reaching here there is a pool,
or stone-lined tank, of questionable water close to the left of the
road (the sides of the tank are too steep for animals to water and
there is no trough). A noon-day bivouac may be formed in this
locality; shade, good grazing and firewood.